WASHINGTON — Prime White Home aides on Tuesday escalated their efforts to undermine the credibility of a former senior adviser to Vice President Mi
WASHINGTON — Prime White Home aides on Tuesday escalated their efforts to undermine the credibility of a former senior adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who has endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr., accusing her of publicly criticizing the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as a result of she is disgruntled over being fired.
Keith Kellogg, the retired lieutenant basic who’s nationwide safety adviser to Mr. Pence, advised reporters that he had advisable eradicating the aide, Olivia Troye, from her place because the vice chairman’s high Homeland Safety adviser in command of managing the coronavirus activity drive.
“The rationale I fired her was her performances began to drop after six months engaged on the duty drive,” Mr. Kellogg stated, calling Ms. Troye a “backbencher” within the administration’s efforts to fight the pandemic.
“She was chargeable for coordinating conferences, bringing folks collectively. And when the efficiency stage dropped off,” he stated, he went to Mr. Pence “and advisable she go away. I’m the one which escorted her off the compound.”
The feedback from Mr. Kellogg and comparable criticism of Ms. Troye from Kayleigh McEnany, the White Home press secretary, had been a part of an aggressive public relations try to denounce and discredit former administration officers who’re more and more talking out in opposition to President Trump.
Miles Taylor, the previous chief of workers to Kirstjen Nielsen, the previous secretary of homeland safety, final week introduced a brand new group with greater than two dozen former administration officers and different Republicans who oppose Mr. Trump’s bid for a second time period. Ms. Troye is a member of the group, as is Josh Venable, who served as chief of workers for Betsy DeVos, the secretary of training.
“These will not be profiles in braveness; these are profiles in cowardice,” Ms. McEnany stated on Tuesday throughout a briefing with reporters.
In a press release posted on Twitter, Ms. Troye disputed Mr. Kellogg’s declare, including a photograph of a ceremonial coin that she stated Mr. Kellogg had given her upon her departure.
“Unhappy that Gen. Kellogg is telling a bald confronted lie to guard the President,” she wrote. “I resigned alone accord & was requested to remain. He by no means escorted me out. He is aware of this. I wrote a be aware thanking all of the colleagues who had labored so onerous with me regardless of POTUS & I stand by that.”
Mr. Taylor issued a press release on Twitter after the briefing as nicely, saying: “The reality drives this White Home loopy. My emotions aren’t damage, @PressSec. However you didn’t particularly deny what I’ve stated about POTUS. That’s as a result of it’s all actual. And y’all are apprehensive about People listening to it.”
In an opinion essay posted on CNN’s web site on Tuesday, Mr. Taylor praised Ms. Troye for coming ahead, including that senior administration officers had “sung her praises to me repeatedly throughout her two years on the White Home.”
Ms. Troye, a lifelong Republican who had beforehand served in nationwide safety positions within the George W. Bush administration, got here ahead publicly final week to accuse Mr. Trump of botching the response to the coronavirus and endangering lives within the course of. In information media appearances and a marketing campaign advert, she stated she deliberate to vote for Mr. Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Ms. Troye additionally stated that she had heard the president disparage his supporters, saying throughout a activity drive assembly that he welcomed the virus as a result of it meant he wouldn’t must shake arms with “disgusting” folks.
“He stated, ‘Once you’re a politician, you need to shake a number of arms,’” Ms. Troye stated in an look on the “As we speak” present on NBC on Tuesday morning. “‘You need to shake a number of arms. And these persons are disgusting. It’s gross. And so perhaps, Covid’s most likely a superb factor, proper? I don’t must shake arms. I don’t have to try this anymore.’”
Ms. Troye stated on Tuesday that her expertise on the duty drive had been “scary” due to the methods wherein Mr. Trump’s public feedback undercut the efforts by the duty drive to cease the unfold of the virus and save lives.
“I felt I wanted to inform the reality about what was occurring and what we had been coping with internally,” she stated in the course of the interview. “Particularly with the president who, you already know, was very undermining concerning the work that was happening within the activity drive. I simply felt that now it mattered greater than ever.”
Mr. Kellogg stated he had “by no means heard” the president say that about Covid and handshaking. He didn’t refute any of Ms. Troye’s particular claims, as an alternative insisting typically that the administration had mounted an efficient response to the pandemic.
After he spoke, Ms. McEnany returned to the rostrum to model Ms. Troye “a disgruntled detailee” and skim from a letter she had despatched to colleagues after her departure saying that it had been “the honour of my life” and that she had “witnessed firsthand how devoted and dedicated all of you’ve gotten been to doing the suitable factor.”
Michael Crowley contributed reporting.